First He’ll Tackle The Tonys, and Then Kevin Spacey Is Going to Court

Kevin Spacey has played Clarence Darrow before, in London—first in a PBS special, Darrow, in 1991, and then on stage in 2014, and then in 2015, in London’s West End, but he’s been thinking about the famous lawyer and orator for much longer. “This is a play I saw for the first time when I was 14 years old and Henry Fonda did it in Los Angeles, so it’s been in my head for a very long time,” he says.

For two nights only, on June 15 and 16, less than a week after he hosts the 71st Tony Awards, we’ll get a peek inside that head as Spacey performs his Darrow—a one-man show written by David W. Rintels—at Arthur Ashe Stadium (where the U.S. Open’s biggest matches are played), bringing the celebrated lawyer into an entirely different kind of court. “When I was there at opening night this past year when Phil Collins played—the stage is lit like a concert, not a tennis match at all. I thought, It could work in a way that no one will expect it to work. It doesn’t mean that drama doesn’t happen on that court all the time, but it allows me to say ‘Clarence Darrow on the court,’ ” he says.

It will also allow him to bring Clarence Darrow to an audience of not only Americans, but young Americans. Through his foundation, Spacey is offering 150 free tickets for young people (those 18–25) per night. Taking a break from preparing to host the Tonys this Sunday, Spacey revealed to Vogue just how he approached this timeless character, why he took politics out of the equation, and why, if you’re watching his performance and you think of Frank Underwood even once, he’s dead.

Does the current political climate put Clarence Darrow in a different context than when you performed this one-man show in London two years ago?

Clarence Darrow lived through many political climates—labor unions were being attacked; civil rights was a bigger issue than it is today; capital punishment was a gigantic issue; and obviously religion divided people—I would have to say, quite frankly, every single major issue that Clarence Darrow fought for or fought against we are still fighting for or fighting against today. So it isn’t that much different.

The volume on some of those issues—especially First Amendment rights—has been turned up the last nine months.

I’m simply saying to you that I don’t think things have changed. Things have always been this way. And a man like Clarence Darrow managed, through his homespun charm and wit and logic, to convince juries and judges. And he managed—in 102 cases where he fought against the death penalty, not a single one of those men he was defending hung—that prejudice should fall away. He never pretended that people weren’t prejudiced, he just tried to appeal to their better instincts. And I think that same kind of logic is true today.

Can we talk about your choice of venue—doing the show at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Why there?

It was never our intention to sell 25,000 seats—you could play in front of 5,000 or 7,000 people. Now, that’s a lot of people to hit in one performance. You’d never hit that many people in any Broadway theatre. [Compare that to playing] a theatre like the Epidaurus, in Greece—it’s 14,000 people.

What did you do at the Epidaurus in Greece?

We toured a production of Richard III that Sam Mendes directed. We traveled with that production to 12 cities around the world on three continents. And the first theatre we played on the tour was the Epidaurus.

Whether you’re talking to a stadium of 14,000 people, or you’re speaking to a camera, does your method of captivation change?

There are requirements in the theater that you don’t have to have in front of a camera. There is pocket of energy and a vocal range that you have to have in the theater that you don’t have to have when a camera is 5 feet from you. A camera captures. An actor has to command.

Can you tell me a little about approaching the character of Clarence Darrow?

It was very interesting, when I did it for the first time in London I remember feeling a little bit of panic because, essentially, if you think about it, an audience comes into the theatre and a man talks to them for 90 minutes. And I was worried because after the success of House of Cards—where there are times in the show where I turn and talk to the audience—I thought, God, if there is a second in this experience where an audience thinks about Frank Underwood, I’m dead. Because these characters couldn’t be more opposite. And yet, because of the way we staged it, some of the really wonderful direction Thea Sharrock gave me, we managed to avoid anyone thinking that.

You’re doing House of Cards, doing this play, you’re hosting the Tonys, you have various film projects—do you sleep?

I am happy to report I sleep very well. And when I’m in a regime, like between now and the Tony Awards, everything is Tonys. Every day, every waking second, will be all about the Tonys. The moment the Tonys are done, I go right into tech on Clarence Darrow.

I guess I’ve always been somebody who believes that we take the time we have to accomplish something. If I have two weeks to put something together it will take me two weeks. If I have four weeks, I’ll take four weeks. I believe we fill the time we have. That’s the way our brains work.

What are you going to do with the rest of your summer?

I’m heading off to make a film with Ridley Scott called All the Money in the World, which is the story of the very famous kidnapping of J. Paul Getty’s grandson in the 1970s, and I play J. Paul Getty.

He just finished with Alien. And he produced the new Blade Runner. The guy must be 80 [he’s 79] and he’s not only trucking along, but he’s producing, producing, producing . . .